


If You Were Ever Here at All

by midnightsurge



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Finn is a lost prince, Force-Sensitive Finn, Kind of Force-sensitive Poe, M/M, Poe is still a pilot, Rey is still badass, Sort of AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-09
Updated: 2016-02-09
Packaged: 2018-05-15 15:34:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5790967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightsurge/pseuds/midnightsurge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You’re not staying.” It hadn’t been phrased as a question; Poe seemed to already know the answer.</p><p>Finn swallowed around the lump in his throat. “This isn’t my war.”</p><p>“Bullshit.” There was no heat to his reply, no change to the expression on his face as he spoke the truth. “Try again.”</p><p>Finn could feel his will crumbling; how could he even begin to understand how the man affected him? “You’ve seen what we can do. We can barely control it. The Resistance isn’t safe with us here, not with Kylo Ren and the First Order trying to track us down.” Finn resisted the temptation to reach across and grab on to the pilot, tamped down on the ridiculous urge to beg the other man to tell him to stay.</p><p>Or</p><p>Finn is a lost prince hunted down by the First Order for his abilities. Poe is sent by the Resistance to find him first.</p><p>(Edit: Same story, different summary)</p>
            </blockquote>





	If You Were Ever Here at All

**Author's Note:**

> Well this completely slipped away from me and became much longer than I'd intended it to be. It's definitely not the most accurate sort of AU, although it should still make sense! I'm still new enough in the Star Wars fandom that I'm not one hundred percent familiar with everything, so please do forgive any major mistakes :) Enjoy!
> 
> EDIT: Hi guys, I changed the summary because I felt this part suited it better instead! The story is exactly the same however! Sorry if it pops up again!!

            Poe was wary as he entered the crowded establishment, his dark eyes scanning the mixed figures in the crowd and taking note of those who’ve been known to cause the Resistance trouble; he was careful to avoid them as he moved around in his civilian clothing, his face turned away to give them less of a chance to recognise him. He moved swiftly to the bar, more than aware that he couldn’t afford to be wasting time, not on such an important mission. General Organa had made it clear that should they fail in retrieving the information needed, the First Order would gain too great an advantage.

            The pilot nestled himself carefully into a gap he spotted between two patrons, his stance determined as he stared down the person on the other side of the bar. It wasn’t long before she turned to face him, a familiar exasperated look gracing her features.

            “No,” she said swiftly before he could open his mouth.

            “I haven’t even asked you anything yet, Maz,” he made sure to grin his most charming smile, aware that it would only serve to annoy her.

            “You don’t have to ask,” she continued haughtily, moving her small frame around as she filled glass after glass of her signature home brew. “Whatever the question is, the answer is still no.” She still placed a full mug in front of him regardless of her countenance towards him.

            “I’m afraid I have to, Maz.” He placed currency on the countertop even as Maz tried to slap his hand away. “This is on General Organa’s orders.”

            Maz paused for a moment, her magnified eyes focussing on nothing but Poe following his admission. “She sent you here?” Her head cocked to the side as she observed him.

            Poe nodded, bringing the mug up to his lips and taking a careful sip. “She received word that some information we’ve been looking for might be passing through here. It’s not for a personal favour this time around, Maz,” he reassured her.

            The thing was, Poe wasn’t a stranger to Maz’s watering hole. The place had the reputation of being a well of information, and Poe had used that to his advantage many a times. At present, however, it was different; even Maz could hardly turn him away when he was sent on orders from the General of the Resistance.

            Maz seemed to have drawn the same conclusion; she inclined her head towards a more secluded table in the back. “Go get yourself settled. I’ll be right there.”

            Poe nodded gratefully, grabbing his drink and carefully manoeuvring himself through the crowd and sitting himself down on the empty table. Maz set a plate of food in front of him not long after, taking the seat across from him with an expectant look on her face.

            “Well?” she started as he dug in, clearly famished. “What is it that you’re here for?”

            Poe nodded, swallowing his mouthful of food before answering. “The Resistance received word that the First Order is looking for a certain lost member of a royal family.”

            Maz cackled, her small frame shaking with laughter. “And you want to get to him first, is that it.”

            Poe chewed another mouthful, shrugging his shoulders. “We don’t know much about what we’re looking for, only that there _is_ something to look for. This is where you come in.” Maz was likely to know more about the issue than all of them combined. She was clearly already aware of who the mission revolved around, even when Poe himself hadn’t the faintest clue.

            Maz continued to observe him as he ate, her small eyes magnified by the glasses she wore, eerily watching him through the lenses. She suddenly darted a hand out and grabbed his chin, turning his head one way and the next, searching for something only she could see. Poe sat still, more than familiar with Maz’s somewhat invasive observational tactics and not minding them one bit. Once she was satisfied, she sat back, letting the pilot return to his meal as he waited patiently for her to share what she knew.

            “The boy you’re looking for,” she began after a moment of contemplation, “he runs from place to place, just like his mother before him. She shed her name when she ran and, just like her, he has remained nameless; that makes him much harder to track,” Maz warned him. “His lineage goes back to the House of Alde; when Alderaan was destroyed, his mother had been off-planet. In the ensuing chaos, she ensured her escape and stayed away from prying eyes since then.”

            Poe listened with rapture, just as he used to listen to his grandfather’s stories about the Empire and the Republic. Alderaan… Did the General have any idea that the missing royal she was looking for came from her long ago destroyed home-planet?

            “A few years along the way, she had a son, one she was determined to keep _hidden_ ,” Maz told him pointedly, continuing her story. “The First Order was never supposed to find out about him.”

            “But they did.”

            Maz nodded solemnly. “A few months ago, a fleet of stormtroopers attacked the desert planet Jakku. From what I’ve gathered, he managed to escape after giving them a hard time. They’re more determined than ever to find him now.”

            “The Resistance wants to help, Maz,” Poe reminded her, putting down his utensils and pushing his plate away.

            “The best help we can give him is to keep him hidden,” Maz argued, shaking her head. “Bringing him to the Resistance will only expose him even more.”

            “More than he already has been?” Poe had seen this sort of story played out countless times; people believe that if they chose not to get involved, if they just keep hiding even while shrouded in secrecy, then maybe, just maybe, they could outrun the devils chasing them. Things evidently never really worked that way.

            Maz reflected on that, then chose to answer carefully. “He is here now,” she said quietly. “He’s looking for a transport to take him to the Outer Rim planets, where he intends to stay hidden for good, as far away from this mess as he possibly can. I’m telling you this so that you may offer him the choice to either run or fight, but under no circumstances are you to force that choice on him, is that understood?”

            Poe nodded readily, hurriedly standing up and following her as her small legs carried her across the room and to a staircase in the corner. He followed her up to where rooms were being rented out to those who needed them, down the hallway and to the right until they reached the last room at the end of the corridor. He watched as Maz knocked lightly, entering only when permission had been granted.

            Poe followed her closely, unsure of what to expect, but finding himself utterly surprised at what was waiting past the threshold. Standing across from them was a woman of deceivingly delicate-looking proportions, her features young but seeming as though she’d carried the weight of the world on her shoulders for far too long. Though she was very pretty indeed, she wasn’t the one who had managed to stop Poe Dameron, darling of the Resistance, in his tracks.

            There was a man sitting on the bed, a bag on the floor between his legs as he sorted through it. Even sitting, it was obvious to say that he had a built frame, broad shoulders on a broad chest, the muscles in his arms bulging lightly as he dug for something in the bag. “Hey, Rey? Have you seen my…” his voice trailed off as he looked up and took note of the newest additions to the room.

            Well… Poe had certainly not expected to be faced with someone who was clearly a very grown _man_ , and not a _boy_ as Maz had previously insinuated. Although, given her years, it would not come as a surprise if she viewed them all a bickering children, tirelessly repeating the same mistakes as their ancestors before them.

            “Maz,” the girl nodded at them wearily, her eyes flickering to Poe and back. “Is there anything you needed?”

            “There’s someone I want you to meet,” Maz gestured Poe forward. “This is Poe Dameron, a Resistance pilot.”

            At those words, the man – no, the _prince_ – stood abruptly from the bed, his eyes wide with betrayal. The woman known as Rey moved to stand between the man and the newcomers, a frown etched onto her face. “You said we were safe here,” he finally said, his arms tense at his sides.

            “You are,” Poe answered, hastily trying to defuse the tension. “I’m not here to take you anywhere,” he reassured them, his eyes flickering sideways to look at Maz. “I’m here to give you a choice.”

            “What kind of choice could you possibly offer us?” the prince’s dark eyes focused on Poe.

            Poe tried his hardest not to squirm in place. He was no stranger to angry looks, and he was definitely no stranger to attractive people, but something about that man in particular made Poe’s throat dry. Poe had to fight to remind himself that the man in question was descendant from royalty and important to the Resistance; it was not the time nor the place. “The Resistance wants to help. If what you seek is nothing but escape, then we’ll help you get away from here; but we also want you to know that there is a chance for you to fight back, to stop running once and for all.”

            He was already shaking his head before Poe had finished speaking. “There’s no fighting the First Order,” the prince spoke with the conviction of one who had seen too many things, had known too much misery. “They’re too strong. The only thing we _can_ do is run away.”

            His companion did not seem to agree wholeheartedly with that decision, but she said nothing of it, her stance still defiant and defensive.

            “I’m sorry, Poe Dameron, but you’ve wasted your time here,” the man continued, turning around to finish packing his bag. “We’re leaving this place on the first transport out.”

            Before Poe could say anything to convince him otherwise, the sound of firepower filtered in from outside, the walls around them shaking worryingly, patches of dust falling from the ceiling. The room’s occupants looked at each other, eyes wide as they came to understand what was happening.

            “Those First Order scum,” Maz spat out. She turned around and left the room in a hurry, the sounds of battle getting worse.

            Rey turned to her companion. “We need to leave,” she told him urgently, grabbing her own bag from across the room and making for the door, the man not far behind her.

            Poe stopped him before he could cross the threshold, his hand on the man’s elbow. “You _can_ choose to fight,” he reminded the fleeing man, nearly pleaded. “You don’t have to keep running.”

            The man shook his head, his generous lips pressed into a thin line. A worried frown adorned his face as the sounds of fighting got even louder. “Running is all I know,” was all he said before pulling away from the pilot and walking away.

            Poe stared after him as he disappeared down the hallway, the walls around him reverberating from another hit. Somehow, despite their ominous departure from each other, Poe was certain he would be seeing the dark-skinned man very soon. He still held hope.

            With that thought in mind, he ran towards the exit, his comm in his hand as he radioed back to base, his backup already on the way.

***

            Poe struggled as he pulled himself out of his X-Wing, his arms barely able to carry him after days of recon; finding the trace that led him to Maz had taken him days, and his body had not been well-rested enough to enter combat right after, but he’d had no choice.

            Maz’s castle was in ruins. Reinforcement had arrived in time to push back the wave of First Order soldiers, but a good portion of the damage had already been dealt by then. Bits and chunks of stone littered the ground around them as the Resistance surveyed the damage, assisting the injured who needed it. The First Order had put an abrupt end to the fight by pulling away at a random moment, though no one from the Resistance had thought to question the odd move if it meant that there was less bloodshed.

            Poe had just climbed out of his X-wing, his feet barely having had the time to acclimatize to the flat ground before he found himself being accosted by someone who had walked away from him only moments before.

            “We have to go after them!” the dark man yelled, his stance frightened and tense, his face etched with worry. “They took Rey, we have to go after them!”

            “Easy, buddy!” Poe steadied him, arms on his elbows as the man nearly tripped over himself in his haste to reach the pilot. “Tell me what happened.”

            The man tried to get his breathing under control but it proved to be futile; his body was shaking relentlessly. “There was the man in a mask – he took Rey when we tried to run through the forest. I couldn’t get to her in time –”

            “Alright,” Poe nodded decisively, tearing his eyes away from him to look around, searching for the shuttle he knew would be arriving soon. “Alright, we’re gonna do this,” he said once he finally spotted it.

            “Yeah?” The man looked hopeful, the distress on his face slowly wiping away as help was being proffered to him.

            Poe stared at him, at his deep eyes and his full lips. He wouldn’t have even been able to say to if he’d tried; Poe didn’t even know the man standing before him but somehow, something was telling him to throw in his lot with him.

            “Yeah,” Poe repeated a little more softly before clearing his throat. “Let’s get going.”

***

            General Organa and the other leaders of the Resistance set themselves up in the remains of Maz’s castle, the walls around them crumbled and letting in the waning sunlight through the holes in the ceiling. Poe and the nameless young prince stood at the head of the only remaining table, the others gathered around them as they listened to his request to go after the girl.

            They sat in silence once he’d finished, the lot of them exchanging glances before settling their sights on General Organa.

            “This girl,” Ackbar began when no one else moved to speak, “what could they possibly want with her? The First Order doesn’t take prisoners, not unless they have any value to them.” He glanced over apologetically to the prince standing next to Poe. “I’m certain she’s very important to you, but that would hardly explain their interest in her.”

            “Bait, possibly? To lure the prince to them?” Statura hazarded, his own eyes fixating on the man in question.

            The nameless prince shuffled his feet and refused to look anyone in the eye. Poe sensed there was more than the prince was letting on, but he chose not to say it aloud. “They stopped the attack after they’d taken the girl,” Poe reminded them, removing the attention from his companion. “They could have just continued wreaking havoc until they’d grabbed the prince as well.”

            General Leia looked at the prince with something akin to fearful curiosity. “You’ve seen the boy in the mask before. The one named Kylo Ren.”

            He looked up at her and nodded slowly, not understanding the despair that seemed to be waning off of her all of a sudden. “A few months ago, I was held captive on their ship. I managed to escape before he came to interrogate me.”

            “How in the hell did you escape from the First Order?” Wexley turned to look at him, awe and disbelief warring in his tone of voice.

            The prince seemed to have realised that he’d let on more than he wanted them to know. He shrugged instead, his head bent to avoid looking at them once more. He coughed. “It’s a long story. I need to get Rey back.”

            Ackbar and Statura glanced at each other. “The risk it would take… not to mention the amount of scouts we would have to send out just to find where they’re keeping her…”

            Poe could feel the man beside him stiffen. _No_ , Poe thought hurriedly to himself. They couldn’t afford to have him lose faith in the Resistance, not when they were trying to convince him to fight on their side. “Our main operations to date are to find as many bases for the First Order as we possibly can; how would this classify as anything different?” the pilot spoke up, his eyes trained on every other leader in the room, daring them to say differently.

            General Organa was the first to agree. “A few of our allies have managed to catch a trace of them as they left Takodana’s atmosphere; if I’m not mistaken, we should be able to get a read on their general direction soon enough.”

            That was all Poe needed. “I’ll have scouts ready to leave on your orders.”

***

            Poe and the prince sat quietly in one of the rooms that had been spared during the attack. They were seated on cots on opposite sides of the room, restless as they’d been told to sit still for a bit while further decisions were made.

Poe had been put on forceful bedrest for at least one night and was therefore unable to participate in any of the planning. Instead of kicking up a fuss however, he found himself studying the prince before him carefully.

            The thing was, Poe was good at telling when someone was hiding something from him. The prince was a stranger, sure, but all humans had the same tells. There was something the other was hiding that he’d refused to divulge when confronted by the Resistance members.

            “You know why they took her.”

            They were the first words exchanged between them since they’d ended the meeting and walked further into the destroyed castle, stepping over rubble and ruin.

The man’s head snapped up, and his sharpened gaze was the only answer Poe needed.

            “You don’t have a name.” Poe didn’t intend on pushing on the previous topic; it wasn’t up to him to know that information; not yet, at least. “How do people normally address you?”

            The prince looked away. “I give out a different name on every planet I go to,” he shrugged, playing with the sleeves of his shirt. “It’s harder to keep track of that way.”

            “And Rey?” he asked softly. “What does she call you?”

            He shrugged again. “She calls me by whatever name I’m using at the time.”

            Poe nodded. “What should I call you now?”

            The prince frowned lightly in thought, clearly not having expected the question. “I don’t… I don’t know…”

            “It could be another temporary name, if you’d like,” the pilot shrugged, “or it could be something a little more permanent?”

            “Temporary,” he said right away, unyielding.

            “Okay,” Poe nodded understandingly.

            After a moment of contemplation, the prince’s eyes glanced back up at him. “I don’t… my head isn’t all here right now,” he frowned apologetically.

            Poe looked him over, saw the scrapes and the bruises littering his skin, the dust covering his previously dark clothes. Then he looked at his face, at the lines of his lips and the depth of his eyes. He wondered briefly if his cheeks truly were as soft as they looked. “Would you like me to help you pick one?”

            The prince nodded gratefully and stayed silent as the pilot’s eyes continued to roam over him speculatively.

            Poe couldn’t help but think back to the stories his mother used to tell him as a child, about the heroes and the do-gooders, the ones who wanted to save the galaxy more than anything else. He looked at the dark-skinned man in front of him once more, really looked at the tired lines beneath his eyes, the weariness in his limbs. That man was meant for more than just running and hiding, Poe could _feel_ it. “What about… Finn,” he decided on after a moment, words from his favourite childhood tales ringing in his ears.

            “Finn?” the prince asked, a light frown appearing between his brows.

            Poe hummed. “My mother used to tell me stories about a brave prince named Finn, born on a planet far from here, a very long time ago. His stories were always my favourite ones,” he smiled self-deprecatingly. “I figure a prince named after a prince… can’t really go wrong there.”

            The prince stared at him like he was seeing him anew, a curiosity building in his features that he chose not to voice aloud. “Finn,” he tested it out himself, his head dropping forward self-consciously. “Yeah. Yeah, I like that.”

            “It’s nice to meet you, Finn,” Poe grinned.

            “It’s nice to meet you too, Poe,” Finn smiled back, momentarily forgetting his worries.

***

            Finn had been running for as long as he could remember. He had also been alone for almost just as long.

            His mother had died when he’d been small, his memories of her few and hazy. What he remembered most were the words she’d left him with on her death bed, her small hands trembling as they cupped his young cheeks.

            “You must keep running,” she’d told him harshly, her gaze piercing even as it was fading. “Keep running and never let them take you.”

            And so he had, for as long as he could. He continued on as much as a child his age was able to, going from planet to planet by trading menial labour for transportation, changing names with every crew he met just as his mother had. He’d gotten curious looks along the way, strangers who’d wondered how a child was travelling alone though they never asked why; it wasn’t uncommon to see orphans in the years following the fall of the Galactic Empire.

            Finn had spent years doing the same thing, over and over again. Trade work for transportation to small-populated planets, perform menial labour for a dreadful wage for a few months, and then get on another transport for another planet. It was a cycle he’d gotten used to and had grown into, never letting himself get attached to any place, name, or person.

            Until Jakku.

            Finn had landed on the desert planet aboard a rather desolate craft; he’d happily left behind the crew he’d been forced to endure for the trip and had quickly set about learning the rules of the place. He knew from previous experience that in lands like those, survival was a priority; scavengers went and found as much as they could, exchanging it for meager rations at the end of the day.

            What he hadn’t anticipated however was just how much more _difficult_ it would be in a place like Jakku. Niima Outpost was far from anything that could be salvageable, the nearest areas having already been pilfered decades ago, and he had no modes of transportation on the ground to get to the further scavenging sites.

Jakku was a hardened place and Finn had known he would get no help from its residents. The first twenty-four hours were spent trying to ration out his waning supplies while trying to figure out when the next transport off-planet was due; he would have no luck surviving a few months in such a place. It would be better if he just left right away.

He’d been sitting on the ground, leaning on a wooden post holding up part of a merchant’s tent, debating whether or not he should exchange a chunk of his leftover food for water, when a shadow fell over him. He looked up, squinting into the harsh sunlight, and could see the shadow of a young woman standing above him.

“Here,” she spoke roughly with her accented voice, her hand held out.

Finn looked at what she was offering and nearly choked when he realised it was a canteen of water. He took it gratefully and chugged down a small portion, mindful of the fact that she would most likely be wanting the rest of it back. “Thank you,” he went to hand it back to her, his immediate thirst quenched.

“You can keep it,” she shrugged, pushing it back to him. “I’ve got mine right here,” she patted at her hip where indeed another canteen was hanging.

Finn had realised with surprise that she’d gone and gotten him a new canteen from one of the merchants, using her own credits to do so. “That’s…” he trailed off, still looking up at her shadow, his eyes wide. He swallowed heavily. It’d been the first time he’d been offered such generosity from a stranger. He pushed himself up and dusted off his clothing before holding a hand out. “Thank you.”

The girl was young, he could see then. Her features were youthful, though she carried herself as though she’d lived through a thousand lifetimes, her eyes hardened and her jaw set with determination. She nodded. “No thanks needed, just don’t expect this again,” she warned him. “Around here, it’s everyone for themselves.”

He glanced at the canteen he held in his hands and thought that maybe that wasn’t always the case. “Is there any way I can repay you for this?” He knew such things didn’t come cheap.

“No, just… you’ve been here since a little before yesterday, haven’t you?” she turned to look around, the merchants beginning to pack their things for the end of the day.

            He nodded slowly.

            “There’s a storm coming in later today. You won’t find shelter here.” She kept her gaze focused elsewhere.

            Finn looked at her carefully. “I’ll figure something out,” he told her after a moment.

            “Come on,” she said instead, nodding her head towards a small quad hovering a few feet away. “It’s too last minute to find any other arrangements anyway.”

            Finn had watched her turn around and walk away, his mind confused and warring with itself. The girl had been right; help wouldn’t come easy around those parts. So why was she offering it?

            He jogged to catch up to her. “Thank you,” he repeated, though he knew the words couldn’t be enough to convey just how thankful he really was. “I can repay you with labour,” he suggested, aware that she must be a scavenger.

            “That could be arranged,” she spoke as she attached the staff she’d been carrying on her back to the side of her quad. “There’s a piece I’m convinced is hiding in some place I just can’t reach,” she looked him over. “It might be possible with the both of us.”

            That night, the storm hit hard. They sat inside her makeshift home, the walls around them rattling under the force of the wind. Finn would not have survived without her offer of shelter. He watched as she prepared her ration of the day, though he found himself surprised once more when she offered him half of it.

            “I can’t take this,” he told her honestly. The ration was hardly enough to feed one person, let alone two.

            “Go on,” she insisted, pushing the plate into his hand. “You can make up for it tomorrow by helping me get pieces worth more than half a portion.”

            They sat there eating their food in silence, Finn having dug through his bag to pull out what was left of his own meagre stash of food, happily sharing it with her.

            “So what are you doing on Jakku?” she asked him as she munched on her instant bread, her cheeks puffing up with every bite. “This isn’t exactly a tourist location.”

            He dipped his half of the bread in what remained of his plate, scooping up the juices and popping the bite into his mouth. “Just another stop, really,” he shrugged, putting his plate down and dusting his hands off. “I go from place to place,” he clarified at her confused gaze. “I don’t usually make it a habit of staying in one place for too long.” He looked back at the scratches he’d noticed on the wall earlier; she’d added one when they’d walked past the door, the action seeming as though it was done completely by habit. “You?”

            She sniffed, getting up and picking up their plates to put them away. “I’ve been here for as long as I can remember,” she spoke with her back to him.

            He looked at the scratches on the wall again. She was waiting for someone. Finn could sort of understand that.

“What’s your name?” she turned back to him after a moment.

“I don’t have one.” For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why he’d answered her so truthfully. He’d always been good at picking a name off the top of his head; it just hadn’t seemed appropriate at that time.

Her eyes widened. “You don’t have a name? But then… what does your family call you?”

He looked away, not knowing how to voice the answer.

She seemed to understand exactly what he meant either way. “I’m Rey,” she spoke up.

“It’s nice to meet you, Rey.”

Finn was brought back from his reminiscing by someone taking a seat next to him, a plate thrust in his direction. For a moment, Finn was convinced he’d somehow transported himself back to that day on Jakku, and that the entire mess that had occurred after had never actually taken place, but it wasn’t Rey’s face that greeted him when he looked up.

Poe Dameron, the Resistance pilot, was sitting next to him, a plate in each hand and one extended to Finn. He had a soft smile on his face, the tanned skin of his cheeks smooth under the evening sun. He had kind eyes, Finn noticed absentmindedly; the kind of eyes that could make anyone drown in them happily, given the chance.

“You need to eat,” Poe spoke, breaking Finn out of his daze.

Finn shook his head. “It’s alright. There are others who need it more than me.”

Poe scoffed lightly, pushing the plate towards him more insistently. “There’s enough to go around, I promise. Most of the Resistance fighters have already gone back to base. We’re only staying here overnight in case we get a signal locked onto the First Order within the next few hours.”

Finn swallowed heavily, graciously accepting the plate but finding that it was possible he wouldn’t be able to stomach it anyway. “And if we don’t?”

“Then we all head back to base, and we keep sending out more scouts. We have a few leads that might be able to give us more accurate intel with the data we were able to pull,” he paused at that, turning to look at his companion. “We won’t stop looking until we find her,” he reassured him as much as he could.

Finn rubbed at his eyes tiredly. “Okay.”

The next day brought no news from their scouts, and so the remaining Resistance fighters still on Takodana packed the last of their belongings and made their way back to D’Qar. Finn tried not to let his despair become apparent, his friend’s absence growing heavy on his mind as he took a seat beside General Organa on her shuttle. He studiously avoided her gaze, unprepared to answer any of the questions she might have for him; he knew only a little about his heritage and his origins, his mother convinced that it would serve him better in life to be unaware of more than the minimal amount of information she’d shared with him. He knew his home planet had been destroyed decades ago, knew that his family had been important enough to still have people on their tail up until this day. His mother used to call him her little princeling on the rare occasion that they were well-fed and happy. Anything else however remained completely unknown to him.

“You don’t have to be scared anymore,” General Organa’s voice broke through his thoughts.

He looked up at her, meeting her knowing eyes with his own. “It’s not fear,” he told her quietly. Finn had heard the stories about her, knew that she could wield the Force in ways different to her brother. He didn’t question how she could read him. “Not for myself, at least.”

She hummed. “For your friend?”

Finn nodded, his fists clenching as he was reminded that Rey was alone in the First Order’s hands. The last time, they’d only just narrowly escaped, and it had taken the both of them.

“Will you tell me?” the General asked after a moment. “About the last time you were with them?”

There weren’t many people seated around them. Though Poe and Finn had hardly left each other’s side while on Takodana, Poe had to pilot his X-Wing back to base, meaning that Finn had to use a transport separate from him. “She was with me then, too,” he admitted quietly, his gaze directed back on the floor once he was certain no one was eavesdropping. “We were captured on Jakku.”

He remembered that night so well, he was afraid he’d never let himself forget it and move on. It had been about two months since his arrival to the desert planet, though to that present day, he was still uncertain as to how he and Rey had come to decide he would remain living with her until he felt it was time to leave. They scavenged together and brought their salvage to Unkar Plutt at the end of every day, ignoring his curious gaze and endless questions whenever he tried to get more information out of Finn. Every evening, they gathered over their meagre portions and ate, Finn telling her about other planets he’d been too, Rey’s eyes wide as she tried to envision all of the different environments she’d only ever seen in holovids.

“There was one night… we were woken by noises outside,” he swallowed harshly. He’d been sleeping on a makeshift bed – blankets they’d pilfered from Niima Outpost piled on the floor – Rey on her own thin mattress just a few feet away from him, when the loud noise had roused them. Finn and Rey had bolted up and stared at each other with wide eyes; Rey’s home was practically in the middle of nowhere, and any residents of Jakku knew there was nothing of worth to steal in any homes. It had to be something else. “Suddenly we were surrounded by stormtroopers. We didn’t even have a chance to fight before they took us.”

“Could anyone have possibly known about you?”

Finn shook his head. “No. The one in charge of rations though… Unkar Plutt. Kept asking questions all the time, even when we never answered him.” He shook his head. “We escaped before they could do any real damage. The man in the mask,” Finn finally looked at her, saw her tense up at the words, “we only saw him in passing, but he’d been there on Jakku.”

It was her turn to look away then. Though Finn couldn’t possibly understand what sort of relation she held to him, he was certain the man in the mask was important to her. Finn knew there was more to her story, just as well as she knew that he hadn’t told them everything.

They spent the rest of the journey in silence, each of them caught in the memories of their past and the uncertainty of their future.

***

            Poe landed on D’Qar later than the others, re-routing himself halfway through the journey to go and check on a piece of intel they’d only received a good ways into their travels. It hadn’t proven to be as useful as they’d hoped it would, but Poe thanked the man nonetheless before setting himself back on course to base. He scanned the people around him as he exited his X-Wing, Snap finding him before he could take a step towards the command center to ask after their guest.

            “He’s been sitting by the lake since we arrived,” Snap tilted his chin towards the far treeline before the other could even say anything.

            Poe flushed slightly but nodded his thanks, making his way over there and finding the man in question right where Snap said he’d be, his gaze fixed on something in the horizon.

            “Did you find anything?” Finn asked without prompting or turning around, startling the pilot out of his observation.

            Poe cleared his throat and advanced from where he’d stopped in his tracks, slightly puzzled as he’d been almost certain he hadn’t made any noise on his way over. He noticed the thin shirt Finn was still wearing and, without much thought, removed his leather jacket and placed it on Finn’s shoulders, ignoring the younger man’s startled look. “Nothing important enough, no,” he answered as he lowered himself to the ground beside Finn, avoiding the other’s pointed stare following his actions.

            Finn’s jaw clenched before he sighed, his head dropping between his shoulders. “She wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for me.” A hint of self-loathing coated the words, and that would simply not do.

            Poe opened his mouth to speak, to remind the prince that people chose their own battles and clearly Rey had chosen to fight alongside him, but shouts suddenly erupted from across the treeline, closer towards base. They both turned, identical frowns on their faces as they wondered what could’ve possibly happened when Snap and Jess ran over to them.

            “We’ve got a lead!” Jess shouted indicating the way back. “We need to get over to command center, come on!”

            Soon enough, most of the leaders for the Resistance were packed into one room, projections being shown to them left and right.

            “We hadn’t managed to successfully lock onto their ships as they left Takodana,” Jess relayed to the others, “but Pava circled the nearby areas after they took off and it seems like we’ve been able to get an approximate location. We’re ready to send a few more scouts to ascertain the information and map out the surrounding area, but we’ve definitely got a lead.”

            Finn’s head immediately snapped to the man standing at his side. He didn’t need to say anything aloud for Poe to understand what it was he wanted.

            “Finn and I will go scout the planet,” Poe spoke up before anyone else. “We’ll radio in if we need back up.” Many of the people present in the room turned to whisper to each other, frowns of confusion as they asked who ‘Finn’ was, but General Organa was already ahead of them.

            “You’ve just returned from a series of long missions, Commander Dameron,” she spoke over the hustle and bustle of the command centre. “Are you certain you wouldn’t want to send another one of your pilots instead?”

            Poe nodded, ignoring Finn’s piercing gaze. “Yes General, I’m certain. We’ll leave tomorrow, at first light; that should give us enough time to gather supplies and ready ourselves.”

            He promptly left the command centre and headed towards the hangars, pilots greeting him left and right, Finn hot on his trail. “Are you sure you want to do this?” the prince called after him, jogging up to catch up to him.

            “I wouldn’t have suggested it if I wasn’t,” he answered truthfully. He looked down as BB-8 rolled up to him, the droid beeping questionably. “BB-8, I need you to run diagnostics on the X-Wing. I’ll start loading her up as soon as you’re done.” BB-8 let out a sequence of noises before rolling away towards the line of starfighters, weaving between the numerous people milling about. He would have to leave the droid behind, just as he’d done for Takodana; BB-8 was too obvious and eye-catching to bring along during recon missions.

            “Poe,” Finn reached out to stop him, a warm hand on his elbow. Poe’s breath hitched in his throat as he tried not to think of how right the touch felt, and instead paused his steps to turn to the man in question. “You don’t… you don’t have to exhaust yourself for this,” Finn swallowed, quickly retracting his hand once he seemed to notice the lingering touch.

            “Rey… she’s important to you, isn’t she?” Poe asked instead, ignoring the lingering heat of Finn’s hand on his arm.

            Finn nodded somberly. “She’s the only family I have left.”

            Poe breathed deeply. “Then we’re gonna get her back, buddy.”

***

            The planet they tracked the coordinates back to was perhaps very characteristic of the First Order. It was dark and devoid of most vegetation, the closest sun still too far to offer more than a lingering light in the distance. It was, however, rich in minerals with a core temperature that burned hotter than most. Most of its residents lived from mining the earth, dreary buildings and gray compounds spread across the majority of the planet’s populated surface.

            Poe and Finn were walking along the crowded alleys, the people in their vicinity rushing left and right for work related reasons, the artificial lights on the buildings guiding them along their work hours. They never seemed to rest, always in a hurry to be doing something no matter what it was.

             “How much do we know about this planet?” Finn asked as he avoided being head-butted by a small man rushing through the crowds of people.

            The action had caused him to press closer to Poe, the pilot’s body warming with Finn’s proximity. He cleared his throat before answering. “Not much, unfortunately. No affiliation to the Resistance or to the First Order.”

            “Yeah, that doesn’t always help much,” Finn mumbled desolately.

            They turned right and found the building they’d been looking for; according to the limited research they’d been able to conduct before arriving on-planet, it had started being frequented by First Order-friendly folk within the last year.

Finn and Poe walked in and found themselves in a busy cantina, folks of all kind strewn across the establishment with drinks in their hands and food on their tables.

Poe decided to head straight for the bar, looking back every once in a while to make sure Finn didn’t get lost in the crowd. He could tell Finn wasn’t used to that sort of setting, his head swivelling around every once in a while to catch sight of something he found odd. “Try not to look around too much,” Poe had to approach and say the words in Finn’s ear in an attempt to not be heard by those in their immediate vicinity. “Gotta make it look like we’ve been here before.” He pulled away and noticed the momentary dazed look on Finn’s face before the younger man shook himself out of it, nodding his understanding.

            “How are we going to find out if there’s a First Order base here?” Finn asked him while they waited for the drinks Poe had ordered from the bar, the barman only looking at them in confusion for a few seconds before turning around to fill their order. “It’s not like you guys have any known allies here.”

            Finn had to press close to him in order to keep the conversation private. While the cantina’s music was capable of drowning out most peoples’ voices, it wouldn’t be hard to overhear a conversation if one was standing close enough. Poe resisted the absurd urge to reach out and pull the lost prince closer, instead gratefully grabbing at the glass that was set before him. “At this point, we’ll have to _make_ allies,” Poe told him after taking the only gulp of alcohol he’d allow himself while on mission. “It might take some time on a planet with no clear affiliation. This is why we chose to have stealth scouts orbiting around trying to catch a glimpse of some sort of basecamp while we’re here attempting to retrieve information. If they find something first, then we’ll leave and join them.”

            Finn nodded slowly as he proceeded to absorb the information, taking his own first gulp of the drink and cringing as a result. He frowned at the glass in his hands. “Who in the kriff drinks this stuff willingly?”

            Poe resisted the urge to laugh and was about to make a disparaging comment about most alcoholic beverages when the expression on Finn’s face shifted, his eyes narrowing at something over Poe’s shoulder.

            “Someone’s watching you,” Finn spoke while barely moving his lips. “Your six o’clock. It looks like they might’ve been watching you for a while.”

            Poe didn’t turn around right away. He knew that stealth was the most important part in these sorts of missions and he wouldn’t allow himself to compromise it in any way. He had an idea of how to make his movements seem as natural as possible, though he had no idea how comfortable Finn would be with the actions. “If you want me to stop at any time, you tell me, okay?”

            Finn looked at him and frowned, though he nodded in acquiescence.

            Poe steeled himself and proceeded to wrap an arm around Finn’s waist, slowly manoeuvering them around until the younger man was leaning against the bar that had been at their side, Poe nearly plastered to his front. He ducked his head lower to the side and let it rest against Finn’s jawline, angling his body in a way that the observer in question was within his line of sight. “I see them,” he breathed against Finn’s skin, willing himself to focus on the mission and nothing but the mission. It wasn’t the time to be developing feelings for someone who might not choose to stay with them at the end of the line.

            The observer was a woman of questionable origins, her skin a shade of green that turned darker near the roots of her black hair. She was staring straight at them, not bothering to look away when Poe made eye contact with her.

            “Possible ally?” Finn carefully brought a hand to rest against Poe’s lower back, his touch gentle and barely there.

            Poe resisted the urge to shiver. “It’s too early to tell. It looks like we’ll be finding out soon enough, though.” He tensed up as their observer tilted her head to indicate a quieter corner of the cantina before standing up and making a beeline in that direction, clearly expecting them to follow. “Come on,” he reluctantly straightened himself up and made to do so, stopping only when Finn’s hand on his lower back tightened its hold, his fingers clutching at the fabric of his soft jacket. Finn himself was still wearing Poe’s leather jacket, neither of them having made the move to return it to its rightful owner. “Finn?” Poe looked at him carefully.

            “What if it’s a trap?” Finn’s eyes traced the direction the stranger had taken before settling on Poe once more. “She might be First Order.”

            “We won’t know unless we take a chance,” Poe answered honestly. Finn had already been in the clutches of the First Order and so his worries of capture were well-founded, but they had a limited set of options. “If it is, I need you to run out of here and head back to the ship as fast as you can, okay? Radio in the scouts and tell them we need back up.”

            “And what, leave you here to fend for yourself?” he scoffed, the previous fear ebbing away slowly. “I’m not leaving you behind, Poe.”

            Poe swallowed around the lump in his throat. “Then we’ll run together. Okay?”

            Finn inhaled shakily. “Okay,” he agreed nonetheless.

            “Commander Dameron,” the woman greeted them once they reached her, the area around her clear from any immediate eavesdroppers. She nodded at them both, her eyes lingering inquisitively on Finn but saying nothing about it. “You’re a long way away from home, aren’t you.”

            “Well, that leaves us at a loss,” Poe smiled his winning poster smile. “You know who I am but we’ve no idea who you are.”

            “The face of the Resistance isn’t hard to miss, Poe Dameron,” she smirked. “My name is Shu’ana and all you need to know about me is that I have information to share with you.”

            Poe was smarter than that. “For what price?”

            She grinned at them winningly. “All in due time, Commander. I promise you, the favour will be a relatively small one, just a shipment I need help delivering near Resistance air-space. All I want is clearance for it when the time comes. I’ll agree to have it inspected, of course,” she added before Poe could say anything, “so that the Resistance may ensure that there’s nothing nefarious on it.”

            Poe turned to glance at Finn inquisitively. Finn met his gaze, and though he said nothing, his expression conveyed enough that Poe knew what his opinion of the situation was. “Alright,” Poe turned back to her, ignoring the knowing look she sent his way, “is that all?”

            “That’s it,” she shrugged. “A shipment for a location. That’s how it works, isn’t it?”

            The pilot nodded. He accepted the small holocard she gave him.

            “The First Order arrived here a few months ago,” she proceeded to tell them quietly. “Seems they’d just lost a valuable prisoner they’d been hunting years for,” she eyed Finn speculatively. “The prisoner was meant to be detained here away from prying eyes.”

            “So it’s a prison?” Poe asked, instinctively moving to shield Finn without even realising he was doing so.

            “Of sorts, yes,” Shu’ana confirmed, her green skin glowing under the cantina lights. She fixed her gaze on Finn once more. “I suggest you might not want to hand-deliver him there yourself, if you plan on keeping him safe.” The words were meant for Poe but she kept her eyes steady on the dark man.

Poe took a step forward threateningly, though all it did was make her laugh.

“I say nothing but the truth,” she shrugged carelessly. “It’s up to you whether or not you heed my words. It’s not every day the First Order builds a custom prison for _one specific_ person. I suggest you ship him back to the Resistance, where he’ll be safe and far away from this mess. And you best do it soon,” she nodded towards the entrance behind them before giving them a mock salute and walking away.

Poe and Finn barely had time to turn around when a commotion broke out near the entrance, stormtroopers barreling past the door and through the crowd, their shiny helmets gleaming under the dim lights of the cantina.

Poe hurriedly grabbed hold of Finn’s hand and started pulling him towards the bar. “Come on! There’s a back entrance through there!”

They hadn’t been the only ones to think of escaping that way, a stream of others following closely behind them. Poe and Finn had been planning on blending in with the rest of them until they could reach the mouth of an alleyway further down the road and make their way back to where they’d hid their transport but a hand was latching onto Finn’s collar and pulling him back harshly before they could.

“Finn!” Poe shouted after him, watching as a pair of stormtroopers hauled the prince back. Poe wasted no time before charging right into the mess, his small blaster useless with the amount of civilians around him that could potentially get injured in the crossfire. He tackled one trooper to the ground, surprise on his side as he wrestled with the soldier, Finn then occupied with the second one.

Now, the thing was, Poe was a pilot; and while he had still received basic training in hand to hand combat, suffice it to say that his talents normally lay in battles that took place in the air or in space. He was even more at a disadvantage given that the stormtrooper he was attempting to subdue was armed and wearing the standard armour while Poe himself had a useless blaster and a thin flight jacket. He wasn’t exactly equipped to be fighting.

Soon enough, Poe found himself being thrown onto his back, the harsh ground grating against his bones as he gasped for breath, pain rushing through to the rest of his limbs. The stormtrooper above him was getting ready to deliver another hit that was certain to hurt when Finn suddenly appeared, blaster in hand and aimed at the trooper’s head.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Finn warned, the blaster at the ready, his chest heaving from exertion. “You okay?” he directed at Poe, though he didn’t stop watching the trooper for any sudden movements.

“I… Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay, buddy.” Poe’s brain wasn’t quite processing the image his wide eyes were taking in; Finn was standing there bigger than life, and suddenly Poe could see the stories of his childhood coming true.

            “Good.” Finn grunted as he pulled his arm back and proceed to smash the blaster down on the trooper’s helmeted head, the trooper crumpling down to the ground instantly. A few feet away, the second stormtrooper lay prone, a similar injury apparent. “We need to go radio the others. Come on,” Finn held the blaster in one hand and extended the other to Poe.

            Poe stared at him in a daze for a little longer before snapping himself out of it, reaching out for the proffered help. He valiantly ignored the sparks that shot up and down his spine as his skin made contact with Finn’s. “Let’s get those coordinates out to the scouts.”

***

            The coordinates given to them by Shu’ana were legitimate; as soon as Poe and Finn had made it back to their vessel, Poe had uploaded the information and sent it out to the nearest scout, receiving a positive confirmation of a running base on location in less than five minutes. Together, the three stealth scouts and Poe’s craft made it to a rendez-vous point far away enough from their target that they were not spotted.

            “Alright, here’s the thing,” Jess began, huffing as she removed her helmet after exiting her X-Wing. “There’s three entrances, but all of them are manned by two armed guards each. Everything else seems too solid to break through, so unless we’re planning on storming a First Order base with only five people, we should probably wait for back up.”

            “There isn’t enough time for that,” Finn countered right away, trying to hold his distress at bay. “They sent stormtroopers after us at the cantina, meaning they already know we’re here.  They’re going to realise sooner or later that those troopers never reported back.”

            “Listen, I’m all for wreaking havoc left and right on the First Order, but this is a suicide mission,” Snap pressed, siding with Jess. “There’s no way we can break into that building on our own!”

            Finn’s eyes closed and Poe could see the will drain out of him. Something was happening in Finn’s mind, and whatever conclusion he’d just come to, it wasn’t a decision he was happy with.

            “What if I could get us past those guards without a problem?” his eyes opened, his jaw set.

            “Finn, what are you talking about?” Poe asked him quietly.

            “I can get us past those guards,” he reiterated, though didn’t bother explaining how. “Or, at least, I can get a few of us past them; does that change anything?”

            Poe looked at the conflicted faces of his pilots, his fellow soldiers; the Resistance would never leave anyone behind in the hands of the First Order, but there was also the question of it being a possible suicide mission without guaranteed backup. The odds were definitely not looking to be favourable. He then turned to look at Finn however, and he knew what his answer would be. “Jess. Call for backup immediately. Snap, you and Karé keep an eye out in the meantime; let us know if there’s any trouble coming towards us, and if there is, find a way to cause some sort of distraction. Finn and I will be going in.” He shot down any possible protest from the others with one look before turning to Finn. “Alright. Let’s do this.”

            Finn was momentarily speechless, his mouth gaping slightly as the others went to heed their orders, leaving the two of them alone. “Poe… I…”

            Poe’s answering smile was strained but present nonetheless. “You said you can get us in there. I trust you. Are you ready?”

            Finn swallowed but nodded resolutely.

            “We’re gonna do this.”

            “Yeah?”

            Poe’s grin grew wider. “Yeah.”

***

            Finn wasn’t certain how he could possibly go about explaining what his plan was without sounding crazy. He and Poe stayed within the cover of the hills and sparse vegetation as they got closer to the east entrance, two stormtroopers flanking the door, unmoving. He could sense Poe wanting to ask him, wanting to know how exactly he planned on getting them past two guards without alerting the entire base to their arrival, but thankfully he remained silent, following Finn wordlessly.

            Once they reached the furthest they could while still remaining hidden, Finn turned to face the pilot. “You need to stay here,” he told him, speaking up again before Poe could protest. “Please, Poe. Just – you just need to stay here for now, okay? You’ll know when it’s okay to go.”

            He watched as Poe deliberated the request, the pilot’s thoughts crossing over his face in various expressions, and honestly, under different circumstances… Finn could feel his stomach lurch as Poe bit his bottom lip, and Finn realised with a start just how much he _wanted_. Wanted what, he had no idea; he’d never had an opportunity to go through feelings like these, but Poe just…

            Finn shook himself out of those thoughts; it wasn’t the time nor the place. “Do you trust me?” he asked without thought.

            Poe looked up at him with startled eyes. “Of course.”

            Finn swallowed harshly at the honesty in the man’s voice. “Then wait here. Please.”

            He moved without waiting for a response, using the cover of night to approach the troopers from the side in order to catch them by surprise. He wasn’t even completely certain it would work with him there alone; the only other times he’d tried it, Rey had been with him. She was just beyond those walls however, he could _feel_ her there, just like he could feel Poe behind him, right where he’d left him.

            See, Finn had found himself capable of odd things ever since he’d met Rey. Their escape from the First Order all those months ago had been near unimaginable. Even when they’d finally managed to get far away enough to sit down and breathe for a moment, it had still been difficult to explain just what had happened.

            “I’ve never done that before,” Rey had whispered from where she sat huddled next to him on the ground of a freighter they had bartered a voyage in. They sat in a corner together, their limbs still shaking with adrenaline as they continued to distance themselves from their previous captors. “Have you?” Her eyes were wide and frightened when she turned to him.

            Finn could barely choke down his own fear, his hand reaching out to grasp onto hers tightly, his heartbeat calming down slightly when her fingers closed around his immediately. He shook his head, still unable to form any words.

            They’d tried doing it again later on and found that it only worked from time to time, almost always notably working when one of them felt as though they were in danger or close to being in trouble. Finn had no guarantee that it would work in that moment, especially while having to use it on two people at the same time, but Rey was in danger and there was no way he was leaving her behind.

            He swallowed past the lump in his throat as he finally reached the point of no return. It was now or never.

***

            “What the…” Poe couldn’t help but gape as Finn suddenly stood before the two stormtroopers, completely unarmed and unhidden. Poe could feel the muscles in his legs spasm as he fought not to run there and stop him, how could he just blow his cover like that, what was he thinking –

            But then. The strangest thing happened. Finn’s lips moved as he mouthed something, and suddenly the troopers were… disarming themselves?

            Poe couldn’t believe his eyes. He had to be hallucinating. The stromtroopers were removing their outer armours, placing them on the ground with any weapons they were carrying before turning and walking away calmly into the distance, their faces placid and expressionless.

             “Finn?” Poe whispered as he left their previous hiding spot, approaching the man as he was kneeling beside the discarded armour, picking up the pieces and dressing himself.

            “That one’s for you,” Finn spoke, his voice trembling slightly, a sheen of sweat apparent on his forehead as he assembled the suit piece by piece. “I don’t know how long we’ll have before they come back to their senses. I would’ve knocked them out, but someone could’ve stumbled over their bodies and sent out an alert, and we’d have been found, and… and…”

            Poe interrupted the prince when it looked like he was close to hyperventilating, grabbing his shaky hands and holding them between his own. “You did good,” he spoke through his own surprise and confusion. Finn was priority. “You did good, Finn. Okay?”

            Finn’s couldn’t keep a straight face, his mouth downturned and his eyebrows pulling into a frown. “I don’t… I don’t know how I do that.”

            “We’ll figure it out. We’ll get Rey, get the kriff out of here, and we’ll figure everything out,” Poe reassured him, squeezing his hands one more time before letting go of them, his skin turning cold alarmingly fast in the absence of Finn’s body heat. He bent down to retrieve the second armour, placing it on himself as fast as he could and setting the blasters on his belt once he was done. He grabbed his short-distance communicator and pressed it, aware that it would most likely stop working once they crossed into enemy base. “Snap? We’re going in.”

            “Roger that, Commander,” came the response. “Nice suit.”

            “Shut up and keep an eye out, please.” He turned to find Finn dressed and ready to go, the helmet held loosely in his hands. “Ready?”

            Finn nodded, reluctantly placing the helmet over his head. “Let’s go,” came the filtered response.

            Poe placed his own helmet on, cringing at the limited visual field offered by the visor; no wonder stormtroopers had terrible aim.

            “This way.”

            He turned to find Finn already heading inside, his steps certain as he crossed the doors into enemy territory. Whatever holdups he’d had earlier, Finn must have temporarily put them out of his mind, their survival and Rey’s rescue his top priorities.

            “This base is bigger than we were expecting,” Poe remarked. They had no blueprints for it and therefore no idea just how large it was, corridors appearing left and right. Rey could be past any of those doors and they wouldn’t know for sure.

            “She’s this way,” Finn answered though the pilot had never actually posed the question. He was pointing towards the end of the long corridor, a staircase apparent at the other side. “A few levels down.”

            Poe didn’t bother asking how he knew. He grew up on Yavin 4, spent most of his childhood surrounded by force-sensitive folk and those training to become Jedis. The tree in front of his house was force-sensitive, its energy thrumming through Poe’s veins whenever he sat near it, its roots comforting and reassuring. Poe realised with a start that Finn couldn’t possibly know.

            Finn had absolutely no idea just what he was capable of. Poe swore to remedy that once they were all out of there, safe and sound.

            They descended the stairs together, and while the first floor had been deserted save for the entrances, that was not the case for the rest of the base.

            Poe could feel his blood freeze slightly as they reached the landing, troopers and lieutenants marching with purpose through the numerous halls. Luckily, none of them paid any mind to the two additional troopers between them and Poe felt himself relax slightly at their disguise. He followed closely as Finn began moving, hoping against all hope that no one would address them or ask anything of them.

            They took a left further down the large corridor before taking a right and another left, Finn pausing momentarily every once in a while as though to get his bearings. Suddenly they were stopped in front of a guarded door at the end of a hallway, greeted by two stormtroopers with blasters at the ready.

            Poe was ready to grab his own blaster when Finn stepped before him.

            “You will holster your weapons and vacate this corridor,” came his smooth voice, the words reverberating weirdly in a way Poe had never heard. He saw the troopers pause, saw the words affecting them differently than they normally would have. “Your commander has relieved you of your duties. You will holster your weapons and vacate this corridor. It is our turn to take your place.”

            The two guards nodded slowly, hesitating before putting away their blasters and walking away with slow, hypnotised steps, just as the troopers outside had.

            Poe barely had any time to absorb the phenomenon before they were moving inside, the doors sliding open easily to them. “Finn,” he tried to warn him; he didn’t know what state they would find his friend in. Over twenty-four hours as a prisoner of the First Order was more than enough time to do serious damage.

            “Rey!” Finn exclaimed as he found his friend restrained to a chair, her back to the door. He hurriedly removed his helmet as he approached her, relief on his face when he saw her unharmed, though not yet awake. “Rey, wake up.” He placed the helmet on the floor and began undoing the restraints, Poe joining him only moments after. “Come on, come on,” he chanted as he lightly tapped her cheeks, willing her to open her eyes.

            Poe could feel his own relief as she blearily fluttered her lashes, confusion marring her face before her eyes settled on her friend. It would’ve been difficult to escape without notice had she remained unconscious.

            “What…” she trailed off, noticing her surroundings and her sudden lack of restraints. “You came back,” she looked at Finn with surprise.

            “Of course I did,” Finn smiled at her, his grin bright and untamed.

            Poe refused to let his mind wander in directions that could distract him in that moment. He took off his own helmet and shook his hair out, resisting the urge to wince at the sudden brightness around him. Those helmets were the worst.

            “Finn, we have to get moving,” he warned the prince, his eyes snapping back to the door that had closed behind them. At any moment, those troopers could snap out of their trance and come back for them.

            “Finn?” he heard Rey ask with a lilt in her voice as the other man finished freeing her.

            “Yeah,” there was a nervousness in Finn’s expression when Poe looked back at them, though Poe could not begin to comprehend from what.

            “Hmm,” Rey hummed as she stood up, wincing as the blood began circulating properly once more. “I like it.”

            Finn flushed and chose to leave the comment unanswered, grabbing the helmet at his side and putting it back on. He grabbed hold of one of her arms and gestured for Poe to take the other. “We’ll have to make it look like we’re escorting her somewhere.” He was about to move forward when he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

            Poe was about to ask what was wrong when both Finn and Rey snapped their heads to look up as though they were seeing something past the ceiling.

            “Was he here before?” Finn turned to her urgently, Rey already shaking her head, the skin between her brows tightening with worry. “This makes things slightly more complicated.”

            Poe could only guess who they were talking about, but he wholeheartedly agreed with the deadpanned look she sent Finn’s way.

            “Is there any way we can slip out without him realising we’re here?” Rey asked instead.

            All around them, alarms began sounding through the base, the loud siren travelling through the corridors. The three of them froze.

            “That… is certainly not reassuring,” she muttered darkly.

            “We need to get out of here as fast as possible,” Poe readied his blaster. “Let’s hope the others are ready.” He placed the helmet back on his head as he moved towards the door, Rey and Finn not far behind him. “Same route we took to get in, and we head right for the exit as fast as possible. Speed over stealth, alright?”

            Needless to say, their hastily put-together escape plan was a disaster from the start. Poe and Finn’s disguises worked for the most part, getting them to the ground floor with hardly any hassle; most of the soldiers on the base simply assumed they were escorting the prisoner to another safe location, none of them fully aware of what the alarms had been launched for. The sounds of starfighters shooting filled the building, the newly-arrived Resistance pilots attacking the base in order to help them escape.

            Once they reached the ground floor however, they found someone waiting for them.

            The man was tall, his black robes covering every inch of his skin, his mask firmly placed on his face. He stood for them at the ready, physically blocking them from the exit. Though he was only one man against three, even Poe could tell that numbers would do nothing for them in such a particular case.

            “We meet again,” came the man’s deep and filtered voice, his hands hanging at his sides even as Finn and Poe’s blasters were aimed right at him. “Did you really think I would let you escape a second time?” He took a step forward, a light chuckle escaping him as both Finn and Rey took a hasty step back, fear obvious in their movements.

            “What do you want from us?” Poe chose to speak, bringing the attention to himself, though he nearly regretted it as he felt the full stare of the masked man settle on him. Was he not the man General Leia had spoken of?

Kylo Ren.

            “Nothing from you, Poe Dameron. Why, I didn’t know they would send the best pilot in the Resistance for this sorts of mission,” he chuckled, the alarms continuously blaring in the background. “Or is it because of something more… personal?”

            Poe detested the tone his voice took, felt his skin crawl as the man’s head tilted to look between him and Finn.

            “Ah,” Kylo Ren nodded as though understanding the predicament. “I see. Personal it is. Well. I’m afraid you’re of no use to me.” With those words, he sent Poe hurtling against the wall, the helmet encasing his head cracking upon impact.

            Poe cried out in pain, bits and pieces of the armour digging painfully into the rest of his body. He pulled the helmet off his head with considerable effort, his eyes squinting into the harsh light, his surroundings spinning slightly.

            “No!” he could hear someone cry out – Finn, maybe – followed closely by Rey’s own voice.

            “Don’t!”

            Poe only managed to catch sight of Finn getting rid of the trooper headpiece before bringing his blaster up and firing at Kylo Ren, the beam of light freezing in place halfway there.

            “Did you think you could hurt me, little prince?” the sneer could be heard through the mask, the man’s arm extended. “You’re so easy to predict, did you know that? I didn’t even need to catch both of you; I knew you would come running to get her.”

            Rey tried to move forward, whether to stop him or to get to Finn was hard to say, but she was immediately frozen in place, unmoving and unnatural.

            “Did you think I wouldn’t be able to stop you?!” he raged, both of his captives releasing cries of pain as Poe watched on helplessly, his body refusing to move. “ _I_ am the chosen one, _I_ will bring about Darth Vader’s legacy!”

            “You…” Rey flinched, the effort it took to move her lips considerable, “will _never_ be Darth Vader!”

            Poe could not begin to comprehend what happened next. Whatever it was, it had not been visible to the naked eye; the only reason he could even begin to guess that something had happened in the first place was because he could feel it around him, could feel the pull of something beyond his comprehension surrounding him protectively.

            Kylo Ren released a guttural cry, the scream harsh and foreign with the mask’s filter. The tall man fell to his knees, his black robes bellowing around him as he clutched at his head, pulling his mask off to reveal pure agony across his strikingly young features.

            “Rey, don’t!” Finn yelled for her, the hold on them releasing as their captor crumpled further on himself. The beam of light that had been frozen in mid-air suddenly struck the opposite wall, Kylo Ren’s power over it depleting. “Rey!” Finn cried out again, moving towards her.

            Poe tried to focus his eyes on the girl, his earlier injury blurring his vision and rendering him drowsy. From what he could tell, she had an expression of seething rage on her face, her jaw clenched tight, her gaze determined as she stared Kylo Ren down. The pilot could only guess at what she was doing, could only begin to understand that both she and Finn were capable of using the Force in ways the Galaxy hadn’t seen in decades.

            The last thing he caught before blacking out was nothing but screams, Kylo Ren’s mixing with Finn’s in a sound that would likely haunt Poe for the rest of his life.

***

            The Resistance base had been quiet upon their arrival, the D’Qar morning greeting them lazily. Words were not exchanged as they disembarked from their starfighters, an injured Finn and a disoriented Poe bringing up the rear of the group, their steps slow as they headed towards what Finn guessed was the medbay.

            He watched as the pilot took uncertain steps, the injury to Poe’s head slowing him down considerably and drawing concerned glances from his fellow pilots, though he repeatedly refused their aid. Past him, Rey walked with her head bent low, refusing to meet anyone’s gaze or speak another word of what had happened.

            The Resistance fighters had been busy fighting the stormtroopers outside the base when the three of them had been making their escape; none of them could say what had happened. All they knew was that Finn and Rey had sprinted out of there with an unconscious Poe in their arms. Finn could feel the curiosity washing off of them in waves, each pilot and Resistance fighter turning to look at them every once in a while, their expressions puzzled and contemplative as they debated the merits of asking one more time.

            He sat quietly in the infirmary not long after, Poe sitting across from him on a cot as they waited for the medidroid to finish assessing the injury at the back of his head.

            Rey had disappeared not long after their hastily put together group went their separate ways, the pilots to their bunkers and the higher-ups to the command centre – minus an injured Poe. Finn wasn’t worried about where his friend had gone; he could sense her presence in the back of his mind, reassuring him that she wasn’t too far away. It was a relief to be able to do so again, her absence having affected him negatively while she had been in the hands of the First Order.

            In that moment however, with the firm knowledge that Rey was safe and sound, Finn found himself unable to pull his gaze away from the pilot in front of him.

            Finn wasn’t good with feelings; he’d spent the majority of his life alone, moving from place to place before he could form any permanent attachments, just like his mother had before him. It had been harder when he was younger. He had constantly been trying to make friends, his natural personality friendly and sociable, a constant smile on his face to greet others with. Finn had had to learn to grow out of it, to push down the longing of wanting to sit down and converse with others, of wanting to be affectionate with them, even if just in a friendly manner. Rey had been the first friend he’d ever made. For nearly a year, she’d been his only family.

            Staring at the man in front of him however, Finn could feel something churning in the pit of his stomach. He wanted something from Poe, something he’d never craved before. Finn wanted more from him than the friendship and kinship offered to him by Rey. He wanted to reach out and caress the tan skin, wanted to let his hands wander across unfamiliar planes, wanted Poe’s hands to do the same to him.

            Finn swallowed harshly, hoping the flush on his face wasn’t evident as the medidroid moved away, beeping something at the pilot before making its way out of the small room, leaving them alone and in silence.

            The younger man could feel Poe’s eyes burning into him but he refused to look up for fear of what he would do.

            “Finn,” Poe’s voice floated through the room.

            Finn shook his head, kept his own gaze fixed on the floor.

            “I won’t ask what happened,” Poe continued after a moment, the sounds of the base waking up slowly surrounding them. “Will you just tell me if you’re okay?”

            Finn could feel his shoulders shaking while he tried to repress everything. “I’m not the one with the injury,” he forced himself to speak, the timber of his voice shaky as he couldn’t help but replay the moment over and over in his head, Poe’s body going limp as he was thrown against the wall.

            “Not my first time getting hurt, buddy. Certainly won’t be the last.”

            From the periphery of his vision, Finn could see him slowly pushing himself off the cot, going against the droid’s orders to stay still for the time being. “What are you doing?!” Finn snapped out of his chair, his arms outstretched as the pilot insisted on being stupid. “You’re not supposed to get up!” He looked up at Poe, dumbfounded.

            Poe said nothing in response, though he approached a little more, his steps more certain than they’d been when they’d landed. He stopped with barely any distance left between them, his eyes darting between Finn’s, daring him to look away. “You’re not staying.” It hadn’t been phrased as a question; Poe seemed to already know the answer.

            Finn swallowed around the lump in his throat. “This isn’t my war.”

“Bullshit.” There was no heat to his reply, no change to the expression on his face as he spoke the truth. “Try again.”

Finn could feel his will crumbling; how could he even begin to understand how the man affected him? “You’ve seen what we can do. We can barely control it. The Resistance isn’t safe with us here, not with Kylo Ren and the First Order trying to track us down.” Finn resisted the temptation to reach across and grab on to the pilot, tamped down on the ridiculous urge to beg the other man to tell him to stay.

            “General Leia, the Force is strong with her too; maybe she could… maybe she could help, teach you how to control it –” Poe tried, licking his lips as he fought to think of reasons.

            Suddenly the distance between them diminished, their arms wrapping around each other, Finn’s face tucked into the crook of Poe’s neck. Finn had no idea who had moved first, who had finally decided to breach the gulf between them, but he thanked the stars and the heavens for giving him that moment, no matter how short it would be.

            “Whatever it is, Force or not… you know we can’t stay here,” he whispered into the warm skin, Poe’s arms tightening around him minutely before pulling away slightly, their eyes meeting in the middle while they stayed wrapped in each other.

            Poe advanced slowly and let his lips brush against the skin of Finn’s brow, answering in whatever way he could without using words. He kissed a slow trail down to the corner of Finn’s eye, to the bridge of his nose, the edge of his mouth.

            Finn’s heart felt like it would race out of his chest at any second, his hands shaking as he clutched at the waist of Poe’s shirt, trying to keep a hold on what semblance of sanity he had left. A rush of air left him when the pilot’s lips finally brushed against his own, the touch light and soft, foreign in a way he’d never experience but knew he would never get enough of.

            “Finn, I…” Poe mumbled, the words lingering on Finn’s lips.

            Whatever he’d been about to say however was lost in the arrival of the medidroid and the accompanying medic. Thankfully the woman’s attention was solely focused on the datapad in her hands and therefore had no time to notice the two men springing apart.

            “Commander Dameron,” she greeted, finally looking up. “Will there ever be a day where I won’t find you here after a mission?”

            Poe’s smile was strained, and if the medic hadn’t been able to tell that she’d interrupted something before, she was certainly aware of it then.

            “Um…” she hesitated, glancing between the two of them, noticing how they avoided looking at one another. “I forgot something,” was all she said before backing out of the room, the droid following her with questionable beeping.

            The ensuing silence was heavy, the moment between them broken but leaving considerable traces of itself behind.

            “I should go,” Finn forced himself to speak. “We ought to be on our way, and I’m sure General Organa will want a word before we head out…” he trailed off, inhaling harshly as he fought to keep his emerging feelings at bay. “Thank you, Poe Dameron.” Finn looked up at him, trying to convey the sincerity of his words. “For everything.”

            Poe swallowed but nodded, solemnly watching as Finn walked away from him. He only belatedly realised that the prince was still wearing his jacket.

***

            “I should have known I’d find you here.”

            The voice startled Poe out of his reverie, his eyes snapping open and catching sight of General Organa standing over him with an understanding smile gracing her face.

            “General,” he greeted with bewilderment as she took a seat next to him, the shade of the tree keeping the harsh noon sun at bay. Poe had been stretched out near its roots since dusk, the emanating pulse from the tree comforting and familiar.

            “Don’t worry, I’m not here to send you out on a mission,” she chuckled wearily, sighing as she finally leaned back, her own expression at peace as she let the energy of the tree flow through her. “It’s not every day our best pilot asks to take a leave.”

            Poe looked away, squinting into the sunlight in the distance. “I just… needed to be home for a little bit.”

            Next to him, Leia was nodding her head. “I know that. I would never begrudge you this. I came to make sure you were alright.”

            Poe didn’t bother asking her how she knew. “I’ll be fine,” he answered her as truthfully as he could. It had only been a few days since Finn and Rey’s departure; Poe had barely been able to say goodbye with how frantic things around the base had been.

            “I know that, too.” She inhaled deeply, looked around them with a nostalgic smile on her face. “I remember when my brother gifted this tree to your parents,” she admitted after a while, the sounds of the birds above them chirping happily. “Or, more specifically, I remember you climbing all over it. One night, you claimed it was your new home and refused to get down.”

            Poe remembered that. He remembered his mother’s face as he looked down at her from the branches, the tree embracing him with its warmth.

            “Why were you looking for Finn?” he asked her as they both sat in contemplation. Yavin 4 was filled with memories for both of them. Leia, of her estranged brother, Poe, of his long-ago childhood. He didn’t elaborate on the question, knew she would understand that he needed more than just the answer he’d been given last time. Finn had stopped being a mission the second he’d ran back to them, fearful for the safety of his friend. “Did you know he was Force-sensitive?” That was putting it mildly.

            Leia sighed, and suddenly Poe could see her age in her countenance, in the weary lines near her eyes and the down set turn of her mouth. “I hadn’t know much of what we were looking for,” she admitted. “I had suspected that the First Order was hunting after a rumour, a mythical member of the House of Alde, someone else who had managed to escape the destruction of Alderaan. I couldn’t have guessed what they wanted him for.”

            “He’s strong,” Poe looked down as he remembered. “And Rey…”

            “Rey… is a conversation for another day,” his General turned to him, a tired smile on her face. “I’m afraid there isn’t much we can do for them, not with my brother still missing.”

            “Was it a wise decision of ours? Letting them leave?”

            “It wasn’t our decision to make. Maybe they’ll come back one day, maybe they won’t. The First Order will continue to hunt for them; they will never leave two beings with such power alone. If the First Order can’t have them, then… they’ll make sure that no one else will.”

            Poe exhaled roughly, terrifying images coming unbidden to his mind. “Then let’s hope they keep running.” His fingers lingered in the soft grass, a frown marring his brow when a thought came to him. “Had they chosen to stay… what would’ve happened?” Would Finn have been crowned? Would he have become like Leia? Princess to a destroyed planet, General to the Resistance army; would he also have become another leader to stand behind?

            “I don’t know,” she spoke the words they were both thinking. “I don’t know what would have happened.” Leia turned to look at him, letting the vulnerability of her years of pain show on her face, as she so rarely did. “Did you love him?”

            Somehow Poe knew she was remembering the past when asking him that question, remembering her estranged husband and the last time she’d seen him. It made him think of Finn, of his soft skin and his hesitant smile. Poe hadn’t known him long enough to love him, but he knew that given time… “I could have.” He knew he would have.

***

            Weeks and months passed since Poe had been sent on that fateful mission. Since then, he’d made one attempt at looking for them, just to know they were safe, just to know they were still alive. He had gone back to Takodana, back to the castle Maz was rebuilding from the ground up.

            She’d looked at him with knowing eyes, hadn’t even let him open his mouth before she shook her head. “I haven’t heard anything,” she told him. “They’re well-hidden, wherever they are.”

            That had appeased him a little.

            Poe continued on with his life. The blow they had dealt the First Order while rescuing Rey was too small to have made an impact; they had hit a glorified prison, not a base camp of operations. Keeping Rey and Finn out of their hands however had indeed made them angry, especially since the two had vanished without a trace, the lost prince and the desert scavenger.

            Poe also continued to be reckless. He hadn’t become the best pilot in the Resistance by sitting back and making the safer choices; he was constantly in the heat of the battle, ensuring the safety of his pilots by placing himself in the middle. It drove the rest of them crazy, the risks he would take, but he could not do it any other way.

            It was after returning from one such mission that Poe found himself face to face with someone he never thought he’d see again.

            He had been exiting his X-Wing, his shoulder killing him from a blaster shot he’d sustained while doing recon on the ground – the wound wasn’t bleeding but he’d been burnt badly enough that he’d have to go to medbay and get it treated with bacta – when he finally caught sight of him. Poe stopped mid-step, his mouth gaping.

            “Finn?” he breathed out, walking over to him slowly, afraid that the man was merely a mirage or a product of his imagination.

            “Poe Dameron,” Finn smiled at him. He still looked the same, their time apart not having changed him one bit.

            In fact… “That’s my jacket,” Poe stared at the garment in question, the leather still well-worn but taken care of.

            Finn looked down at it, then at him, his hands moving to pull it off but Poe immediately stopped him.

            “No, no! Keep it. It suits you.” He couldn’t help but bite at his lip, his eyes dragging over the width of Finn’s shoulders and the way he filled out the jacket in a way Poe never did.

            Finn’s gaze snagged on the movement and before Poe knew it, he was being pulled into the other man’s arms. He immediately melted into the embrace, his hands coming to hold him close, every nerve in his body telling him not to let go.

            “You’re hurt,” Finn mumbled into his shoulder, careful to avoid the wound in question.

            “I’m fine, buddy.” He tried not to whine when Finn began pulling back, an unimpressed look on his face. Poe lightened up considerably however when Finn grabbed his hand, intertwining their fingers.

            “Come on, let’s go get that cleaned up.”

            Poe grumbled slightly. “I don’t think the medics would be too happy to see me again.” He also knew they would most likely keep him there longer just to annoy him or in an attempt to – in their words – teach him a lesson about being more careful.

            Finn let his gaze drop, licking his lips nervously as a flush crept up his skin. “It… we don’t have to go to the medbay to get it cleaned.” He cleared his throat a little, still refusing to look up.

            It took a moment for Poe to catch the meaning, but his heart skipped several beats when it did, his stomach flipping with unexpected excitement. “Yeah,” he nodded, swallowing, “Yeah, okay. I have a first-aid kit in my room.”

            The next thing he knew, he was sitting on his low bed, Finn kneeling between his legs with the kit by his side.

            Poe had carefully removed his flight jacket and his shirt, the skin of his shoulder red and seared. He winced, more than aware that it would take a while to fully heal it, though he couldn’t really bring himself to care about the time ahead when Finn was right _there_ , closer than he’d been since he left.

            “When did you get back?” Poe finally asked, watching as Finn carefully pulled out the items he would need, placing them on the mattress next to the pilot for easy access.

            “A few hours before you did,” Finn smiled up at him before going back to what he was doing, a concentrated frown on his face.

            “And Rey?”

            “She’s with the General and Master Skywalker.”

            “ _Luke_ Skywalker?!” Poe gaped, not even feeling it when Finn swabbed at the tender wound, cleaning it meticulously. “He’s back?!”

            Finn graced him with a smile, continuing his task even as he answered. “He found us a little while after we left here.” He grabbed the bacta and slathered it on Poe’s shoulder, grimacing slightly at the texture. “We’ve been training with him ever since. And one day, just a few weeks ago, he decided it was time to come back.” He smiled triumphantly as he finished wrapping the wound with clean bandage. “And so, here we are.”

            Poe stared at him with wide eyes. “I can’t believe he’s back. Does that mean… are you training to be a Jedi knight?”

            Finn began putting the things away. “He’s teaching me how to use the Force, yes. I haven’t decided yet on anything else. I’m still… still royal, no matter that Alderaan has been long gone for years now. I don’t know if that changes anything, if it… if it means the choice is out of my hands,” he shrugged self-consciously. Once everything was stowed back in the first-aid kit, he pushed it to the side, determined to change the subject. “How… how have you been?” He didn’t move from his position on the floor, didn’t look up at Poe as he asked the question.

            “I’ve missed you.”

            Finn’s head shot up at the words, his eyes wide and his mouth gaping slightly, not having expected those words to leave the pilot’s mouth. “I’ve missed you, too,” he admitted breathlessly. “A lot.”

            Poe let his hands guide him, let himself grab onto Finn and bring him closer. Finn’s arms wrapped around his waist, pulling their torsos flush together, Poe on the edge of the cot as a result. He could feel the heat of Finn’s torso against his groin and he fought to keep a groan down, willed his body not to scare the other man away.

            “I’ve had dreams about this,” Finn whispered, his fingers trailing curiously, reverently, on the bare skin of Poe’s back. “Just – so many dreams. About you. About this,” he punctuated the last statement with a soft kiss to Poe’s pectoral muscle, looking up after to make sure he hadn’t crossed any lines.

            Poe could no longer hold himself back; he cradled Finn’s jaw with his right hand and brought him closer, stopping just a few millimeters before their lips joined. “Are you staying?” Poe had to ask. He couldn’t let himself fall so deep, so fast, only to find himself alone at the end of it. He owed Finn the same courtesy.

            Finn nodded emphatically. “I’m staying,” he whispered, pushing forward and finally kissing Poe. “I’m staying,” the words were lost between their mouths, between presses of their lips. “I’m staying, I’m staying.”

            Poe felt relief wash over him with something else, something that had been building in him since the first moment he’d set eyes on Finn, back when he’d been hiding away at Maz’s with no name. He could feel it at the back of his mind, in the pit of his stomach as he pulled Finn even closer, licking across his lips and moaning when Finn’s tongue met his.

The leather of his jacket was smooth beneath his hands but he was itching to touch warm skin instead. He pushed at the fabric, Finn catching up pretty fast with the program and moving away momentarily to pull at the sleeves, shedding the jacket and his shirt soon after before hurrying to press up against the pilot once more. A breathless gasp escaped the younger man as he felt unfamiliar heat across his front, a wanton cry following right after as Poe chose that moment to bite and suck at his lower lip; it sent shockwaves down Finn’s spine, his hands trembling as they dipped to small of Poe’s waist.

“Up,” Poe mumbled while he continued to nibble on Finn’s mouth. “Up here, come on.” He hooked his fingers into the waistband of Finn’s pants and yanked, urging the man off his knees and onto the cot. He lay back and encouraged Finn to lie above him, letting the taller man straddle his thighs to give him a sense of control. A soft cry let loose from his throat as Finn accidentally brushed against his tenting erection, his body jerking in response.

Finn froze on top of him, his jaw slack at the reaction. “That’s…” he trailed off, his eyes roaming over Poe’s body as if just noticing the effect he had on the pilot, from his flushed cheeks to his heaving chest and down to his cock, still trapped in the confines of his pants. Finn sat up a little and let his hands trail across the pebbled flesh, goosebumps appearing in the wake of his touch. “Are you cold?” he asked quietly, his dark eyes looking up to meet Poe’s.

Poe choked out a laugh, shaking his head. “Not cold, no.” He let his own hands rest against Finn’s hips and squeezed gently, watching as Finn’s head fell back and his eyes slipped shut.

“Kriff – I just want you everywhere,” the words slipped past Finn’s lips unbidden, the man hardly paying attention to them as he worked to straddle Poe properly. He cried out when their cocks pushed together and he found himself repeating the action over and over again, Poe’s hands encouraging him as they slipped from his hips to the curve of his ass. “Poe – I need –”

Poe was already nodding, and soon enough he was helping both of them undress completely, their pants joining the rest of their clothes on the floor, and then it was just an abundance of skin on skin. Poe would have been happy continuing the way they were, their bodies rutting together by instinct, their mouths repeatedly colliding with harsh kisses, but Finn seemed to have other ideas.

“Please,” he begged, his fingers digging into the flesh of Poe’s chest, his fingernails leaving raised welts behind. He needed more, but he couldn’t for the life of him figure it out; his nerves were set aflame, his entire being craving for something just beyond his grasp. He had no idea how to make Poe understand that he felt like he would combust if he didn’t satisfy whatever urgent need had taken over him.

By some miracle, Poe understood him. “Are you sure?”

Finn bit at his jawline and nodded, his breathing heavy and uneven. He followed obediently as Poe rolled them over, stealing kisses whenever he could. Soon enough, they had reverted positions, Poe looking down at him as though every secret in the galaxy lay in his eyes. “Poe,” Finn pulled him close. “I want this with you.”

Poe licked past the seam of his lips once more before sitting up to reach for his small bedside table, pulling open the drawer to retrieve a bottle from inside. “How do you want this?” he asked breathlessly, the idea of being with Finn in such a way wrecking him to the point where he felt like he was on the verge of tumbling over a cliff with nothing to keep him from crashing at the bottom.

Finn wordlessly spread his legs, his gut churning with nerves and anticipation. “I’ve never –” he licked at his lips, feeling the spots Poe had bit his teeth into, his cock twitching, “but I want to.” He’d never had the opportunity to be with someone in such an intimate way, had never felt the want nor the need to. He could see the understanding dawning on Poe’s face.

Poe leaned down to kiss him softly. “Okay,” he said.

 _I’ll take care of you_ , they both understood.

Poe was careful, pushing in the tip of his coated finger past the rim of Finn’s hole, slowly edging it in and out before letting it sink in to the second knuckle. Finn shuddered around him, a broken moan escaping his throat as he clenched his eyes shut, his body jerking at the intrusion.

Poe worked him slowly, stretching him with one finger, and then two, before he could feel himself brushing against a bundle of nerves. Finn’s cry reverberated throughout the room and Poe wouldn’t be surprised if it had been heard from beyond the door, those passing near his quarters knowing without a doubt what they were up to. His cock began to leak profusely as Finn clenched around his fingers, the rest of his body anticipating that heat, impatient to be surrounded by it.

Before long, Poe was using three fingers, Finn writhing beneath him while his cock rested against his lower abdomen, leaving behind trails of precome against his dark, glistening skin. “Please, please, please –” Finn was repeatedly begging, the words turning to near gibberish as Poe kept brushing that bundle of nerves, kept pushing and twisting against it. “Poe! Please –” he nearly sobbed, tears of frustration pooling in the corner of his eyes.

Poe had to pull away and clench a hand around the base of his own cock, his forehead resting against Finn’s heaving chest as he fought to keep himself from coming on Finn’s reactions alone. He’d never felt so on edge from so little.

Finn pushed his legs up, his thighs digging into Poe’s sides and egging him forward. “Come on,” he gulped, his hands tangling in Poe’s hair. “Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts.”

Poe shook his head frantically, kissing any skin he could reach before capturing Finn’s lips between his own. “Never.” He grabbed the bottle and slicked himself up before grabbing Finn’s thigh and pulling it higher on his waist. Poe looked down at him one last time, meeting his gaze and seeing the assurances pouring off of Finn.

When Poe finally pushed in, filling him up in a way nothing had before, Finn couldn’t keep track of his thoughts anymore. It was down to just him and Poe, nothing else between them, nothing else in the world. He wasn’t certain he would ever be able to give up feeling like this ever again.

Poe rested his head against Finn’s collar as he gave the younger man time to adjust; his shoulder twinged slightly from his injury but he couldn’t give a damn, not when he was surrounded by Finn and heat and pleasure beyond any he’d felt before. He half-heartedly wondered if it was impossibly great with Finn because of who he was, what he was capable of controlling, but he found he couldn’t care less what the reasons were. All he needed was the man beneath him and nothing else.

Finn’s chest was heaving and he could feel every exhale being punched out of him, Poe having just started moving in slow increments. He felt his body yielding to the other man, felt his muscles loosen against the intrusion until they were willfully pulling the pilot closer, his arms coming up to encircle Poe’s waist. He gasped, his mouth gaping when Poe moved his head from Finn’s collarbone to the side of his neck, his teeth dragging against the sensitive skin and leaving behind little bites that marked him in obvious ways.

Poe’s thrusts steadily became stronger, his hips snapping forward, Finn’s loud moans encouraging him to set a harsher pace. The cot scraped across the ground with every movement, Poe lifting his arms from where they’d been resting by Finn’s head to settle them on the bed’s frame, his fingers twisting around the cold metal and offering him a better vantage point.

Finn’s insides were constricting, his toes curling as he lifted his thighs and curled his legs around Poe’s hips; he used his limbs to encourage him, let his hands glide across the bunched muscles of Poe’s back before settling them on his ass, grabbing onto the flesh forcefully and crying out happily as it had the effect he wanted, the angle perfect as Poe’s cock finally brushed against that spot.

            Poe’s control degenerated rapidly not long after; his thighs quivered with the effort it took to keep up such a brutal pace but he was _so close_ , they both were. Finn’s head was thrown back against the pillow and the sounds leaving his mouth were unforgiving, each cry, each whimper settling in Poe’s bones like they belonged there. He couldn’t possibly delay the inevitable end more than he’d already had; Poe had been on the edge since the beginning, and he could feel it there, in the pit of his stomach and the ends of his toes. He brought one hand down from the bedframe and let his fingers circle Finn’s cock, tugging at the smooth skin and swiping over the head, using the precome gathered there to slick him up.

            Finn’s body twisted in the sheets damp from his sweat, fire coiling up and down his spine. He was convinced he couldn’t possibly handle more. His skin was already threatening to burst at the seams and leave him exposed to the world; any more and he was afraid there would be nothing left of him, nothing to come back to except for Poe, and Poe’s eyes, and Poe’s lips, and – and –

            Poe felt it the moment Finn came apart, felt it all the way to his core as Finn spilled over his hand with a wretched cry. There was a mad heat enveloping him as Finn’s body clenched around his cock, Poe thrusting past the tightness until he reached his own completion, wave after wave of unadulterated pleasure washing over him. He let his hips grind forward until he was spent, his body shaking in the aftermath.

            Finn was trembling, the adrenaline slowly ebbing from his limbs though he kept them wrapped around Poe all the same, his arms and his thighs cradling the man he’d been longing to see for months.

            Poe rested his head against Finn’s heaving chest, the younger man trying to regulate the flow of oxygen to his lungs, and let his lips trail over the still erratic heartbeat. His own mind and body were at peace in a way they hadn’t been in years, not since he’d been young and learning how to fly for the first time, not a care in the world on his shoulders.

            Finn’s hands came up to card through Poe’s hair, the soft strands slightly damp from their activities. He let his fingers card through them before slowly reaching down to trace the lines of Poe’s face, smiling when the man pressed one last kiss over his heart before turning his head over to catch the wandering fingers with his teeth.

            “How long do you think we have before they come looking for us?” Finn spoke, breaking the silence that had previously been filled with the sound of their breathing in tandem.

            Poe chuckled, releasing Finn’s hand with one last nip to his index finger. “Not long enough.” He winced at the ache in his shoulder. Poe shuffled around a little, pressing his face into the welcoming heat of Finn’s neck and wrapping his arms around his torso, refusing to move any further. “Did you always know?” he asked out of the blue.

            Finn looked down at him with a raised eyebrow.

            “That you were royal,” Poe explained, his curiosity reignited. He’d never thought to ask. “Did you always know?”

            Finn settled back onto the mattress, one hand still playing with Poe’s hair. “To a certain extent, yes. I knew my mother was, even if I never knew my father. She passed away when I was young though.” His voice sounded very far away, lost in his memories. “I barely remember her. I knew I had to keep running, I just never knew why. And when the First Order caught up with me…” he sighed deeply. “Well, I guess it was then I figured out it wasn’t necessarily the title they were hunting me down for.”

            The Force. Finn knew the First Order wanted him for that.

            “Does it change anything?” Poe asked with a quiet voice. “Now that you know the real reason?”

            Finn kissed the top of his head, a smile breaking out on his face. “No, not really. I chose to stay. I’m _choosing_ to stay here, with you, with Rey, and the Resistance. The reasons of the past don’t really matter anymore.”

Poe’s heart thumped hard against his chest and he buried his head further into Finn’s neck, depositing another light kiss there.

Finn hummed, exhaling happily before settling more comfortably into the mattress, Poe’s weight on top of him beautiful and soothing. They could stand to face the real world later.

***

            The looks they drew when they walked into the command center later in the day were aware and all-knowing. They hadn’t exactly been exactly subtle, they most certainly hadn’t been quiet, and given that it was the middle of the day, Poe wasn’t surprised to know that they had failed to be conspicuous.

            He stood by Finn’s side, offering him the comfort of his presence as many stared their way, an oddity given that Luke Skywalker, the man they’d spent years searching for, was right across from them.

            “Poe, Finn,” Skywalker greeted them with a nod and a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth, Rey beside him with a similar expression.

            Poe turned to look at Finn in surprise; he hadn’t realised the prince had kept the name Poe had chosen for him all that while ago. Finn, having understood the reason for his surprise, merely blushed and looked away, though he let his fingers trail ever so lightly against Poe’s before pulling his hand back.

            “Now that we’re all here,” General Organa stood, drawing all eyes to herself, “we can finally begin.”

            She looked at each of them individually before letting her eyes rest on her brother.

            “Welcome to the Resistance.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come join me over [here](http://midnightsurge.tumblr.com) on Tumblr! Comments are always lovely :)
> 
> [Here](http://midnightsurge.tumblr.com/post/138951654510/youre-not-staying-it-hadnt-been-phrased-as-a) is the Tumblr post if you guys would like to reblog it :)


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